Diary of an Arcade Employee

Bad Dudes

If you were one of those people that played NES button mashing, side scrolling, beat down games, chances are good that Bad Dudes was played at least once. Developed by Data East, Bad Dudes is a game that has you playing as a… well Bad Dude. You are a master of fighting and ninja weapons and you will be using weapons along side your fists and kicks to lay down the ninjas that are attacking you from all sides. You are a one man army (unless you have a buddy playing then you are a two man army) that travel from the city, to the sewers, to the mountains and on trains all in effort to save the president.

Really when a game starts out with the following screen….

“The President has been kidnapped by Ninjas.

Are you a Bad enough Dude to rescue the President?”

… how can you not want to just go and lay waste to ninjas?

If you have played other side scrolling games where you hit stuff that jumps at you from off screen, then Bad Dudes will not be a change for you. The enemies are mostly Ninjas except for a female (who looks like a hooker) and dog that comes out at you now and then. Along with a few other characters, they are pretty easy to beat.

The level bosses will throw you a challenge, but if you find a spot where they are off screen and you keep hitting the attack button, you can beat them down pretty fast. There is no real pattern you need to learn with the bosses, this is old school attack, attack, attack. This game fits in perfect with movies from the 80’s where all the bad guys are dressed the same. Really if an organization can afford that many of the same outfits, then how is it they have sucky and crappy level bosses? I say cut back on the wardrobe budget and spend a little more on your minions to stop advancing forces (are you planning something? – Ed). But I guess if the big boss did that then the game would not be fun.

Each colour ninja has it own attack like the Blue ninja will run at you, the Grey ninja throws stuff at you and the Pole ninja pogo jumps onto you. You get to use punches, kicks, a knife and nunchucks plus a spin kick when you press both the attack and jump buttons together. What you think you need more to fight off the ninja army? Remember, you’re a Bad Dude.

Sound and graphics are nothing special, pretty plain Jane. Looks of the game really match the looks of pretty much all other side scrolling game for the time made by Data East and other 3rd party companies. The music is typical action game stuff with no real tunes that will stick in your head or get you whistling.

The controls are tight, but nothing great. There are times when you press a button to attack but it will be delayed long enough for you to end up getting hit. Now turbo buttons will fix this issue, but turbo slows you down from turning around to hit the guys behind you.

It is an average game, not bad but not great and other than the cut screen at the start and end, nothing really memorable going on. Personally I think this games needs a reboot. Relaunch it with today’s modern consoles and maybe call it Bad Dudes 2: When Bros Attack or Bad Dudes 2: Electric Bro-boogaloo or something like that.